City of Joburg officials celebrated the culmination of a free WiFi project rollout across all Rea Vaya stations in the city. The project was completed by the Metropolitan Trading Company (MTC) and is a move towards Joburg revamping its digital culture. Take this development with a healthy grain of salt, of course, since the Rea Vaya project remains financially precarious and has previously lost internet access on all stations.

Rea Vaya logs back in

MTC says it plans to track network performance and user feedback in a bid to ensure the project’s success. All 35 of Rea Vaya’s BRT stations are now online with Wi-Fi, another step towards Joburg’s digital rehabilitation project.

It’s a lovely song and dance, but we’ve seen this before. When the Rea Vaya project launched in 2009, select stations had free WiFi access. Over several years, the project experienced delays and declines in funding, which prevented the spread of internet access across all stations. That’s not even getting to the attacks by taxi companies on stations and routes; the Bosmont and Wesbury stations remain out of commission.

The ultimate point is that it’s unclear whether Rea Vaya has overcome these issues. With so much potential on the other side of project completion, those running it have continually failed to see it through so far. Retaining hope in the face of past performance has proved difficult.

Nonetheless, this is a welcome step. Wait times for the Rea Vaya service can be wildly inconsistent, especially when there’s a shortage of buses. Now, commuters can more easily pass the time on their phones, checking e-mails, getting minor work done, or mindlessly playing Candy Crush and doomscrolling social media.